Solid Concepts in Austin, Texas prints the World's first 3D Printed Metal Handgun, the Browning 1911 - Metal 3D Printing is Thor The Dark Worlds for making of Replacements Parts for any appliance

“The whole concept of using a laser sintering process to 3D Print a metal gun revolves around proving the reliability, accuracy, and usability of 3D Metal Printing as functional prototypes and end use products. It’s a common misconception that laser sintering isn’t accurate or strong enough, and we’re working to change people’s perspective.”

Solid Concepts’ Vice President of Additive Manufacturing Kent Firestone, commenting on their printing of the First 3D Metal Printed Handgun

Cody Williams, founder of Defense Distributed and maker of the First 3D Printable Plastic Gun that had a successful test firing on Sunday May 5^th 2013 as explained in my blog article entitled “Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson's 3D Plastic Gun, the Liberator - 3D Printer Arms Race heralds the coming of IKEA DIY Design for Consumer Electronics”, may have started a trend towards 3D Printing of Guns.

This as Solid Concepts, a professional 3D-printing services company based in Austin, Texas, has made the world's first 3D Printed Metal Handgun based on the Browning 1911 Firearm as stated in “LOOK WHAT I BUILT, MA! TEXAS FIRM MAKES WORLD’S FIRST 3D-PRINTED METAL GUN”, published November 8, 2013 By Konrad Krawczyk, DigitalTrends and “Uh-oh, this 3D-printed metal handgun actually works”, published November 7, 2013 6:12 PM PST by Dara Kerr, CNET News. 

Their 3D printing process is far more advanced than the Makerbot 3D Replicator Printer as stated in my blog article entitled “MakerBot 3D Replicator Printer debuts at CES 2012 - Evanescence Brings Star Trek to Life”. But it’s more of an indication that 3D Printing, one of my Future Predictions in my blog article entitled “Tech Predictions of 2013 - 3D Printing and smaller smartphones”, is beginning to make an impact with what the development indicates: it’s possible to print replacement parts for products.

World’s first 3D Metal Printed Handgun – Replacements parts printable on demand in the Future

This development is very exciting to me personally. Solid Concepts utilized a manufacturing process known as DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering), used for the prototyping of metal parts for the aerospace and medical industries. Precision in making Gun parts that work is key.

DMLS is perfectly suited towards the creation of this working Browning 1911 that fired 50 test rounds thus far. Also this is totally legal, as Solid Concepts has a Federal Firearms License to quote Solid Concepts Vice President of Additive Manufacturing Kent Firestone in a pitch to boost his firearm Part Replacement service: “We're proving this is possible, the technology is at a place now where we can manufacture a gun with 3D Metal Printing. And we're doing this legally. In fact, as far as we know, we're the only 3D Printing Service Provider with a Federal Firearms License. Now, if a qualifying customer needs a unique gun part in five days, we can deliver”.

However, before you get any crazy ideas about Islamic militants and Jihadists in Afghanistan or even American Militia groups starting a private War by printing AK-47's using this process, think again, to quote Solid Concepts Representative Alyssa Parkinson: “The industrial printer we used costs more than my college tuition (and I went to a private university).And the engineers who run our machines are top of the line; they are experts who know what they’re doing and understand 3D Printing better than anyone in this business.”

Also, it’s not plastic. So you can’t go printing this even if you had the wherewithal to purchase a DMLS Printer as it won’t make it through an airport scanner. But it proves once and for all that 3D Printing can be used for more than just Hollywood Props as noted in my Geezam article entitled “3D Printers, the next big Revolution in Printing, heralds the coming of Quantum Teleportation”. It can also be used make precision real-life replacements parts, for everything from Hip Join replacements to even missing mechanical parts for your Toaster oven or Blender you’re trying to fix in the future.

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But for now the coolness of watching this thing being manufactured and test fired is sure to make many proponents and Design Engineers of 3D Printing cheer for this development, as 3D Printing is Animation and Graphic Design Brought to life.